Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report April 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Reports
The first half of April has seen some good bass fishing action. Most of our trips have been done on Butler Chain and Johns Lake. Although we have seen some rather strange weather for this time of year for us, with a cold front coming thru, the action has remained steady for the most part, with us having to work harder for our bass on the day the cold front slammed us.Most of our action on Butler Chain has come from docks, wacky rigged Gitem KO's and weightless Warlocks in Green Pumpkin have done a great job catching bass up to 5 pounds.
When docks have slowed in producing bass, we have moved to the cypress trees, tossing baits at the trees and letting it fall straight down to the base of the tree, this has triggered some very good action for us.Johns Lake has seen scattered schooling action fist thing in the mornings, usually just as the sun makes it half way thru the Deer Island cut. Docks have been excellent producers as well as my drift pattern thru the middle of the main lake, tossing Steel Shads, these baits have caught us a ton of bass out there, as well as a few 1-1/2 pound crappie. Offshore scattered grass beds have been holding some bass with the Twin Liz rigged with 1/8th ounce weight catching them all. We have caught a few bass on 1 ounce spinner baits, but that bite has not been consistent enough to keep us using them.The last half of April continued with some good bass fishing action. Butler Chain and Johns Lake have been the choice lakes to catch bass.
 Johns Lake has been doing good for my clients wanting to use live bait. Early morning schooling action in both of the cuts have been good for numbers.Steel Shad worked in the middle of the lake on a drift pattern has been simply awesome at keeping the action going steady. Docks have held some quality bass using the Gitem KO whacky rigged as well as skipping a Gitem Sugar under docks.Butler Chain has seen some very good action around docks with Gitem Curly 7’s and KO’s. Areas with grass and lily pads have also been good producing areas to close out the month. Lakes Butler and Tibet have been the top producers, with some very good early morning action, once the air temperature warms up, it’s a lot of flipping and skipping.We have filmed a few more fishing shows which will be airing soon on our other site along with another Skill Zone episode showing how to tie a few more fishing knots. Be sure to check it out as we continue to add more content and videos weekly.
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Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing

March 2009 Bass Fishing Report

The month of March has carried over pretty much from the same action we have seen in February, although the majority of the bass had already spawned, we still were catching some bass off beds, or cruising around the beds. Butler Chain we have been catching most bass just off the grass beds and under docks, wacky rigged Gitem KO’s have been doing great under docks as well as the curly 7’s.

Johns Lake has started showing some limited schooling action in the Dear Island cut, steel shad and High Roller Rip Rollers have got some good action. A few docks have produced on Johns Lake for us the past month, but one of the biggest patterns seems to have been isolated grass patches worked with either the KO’s or the curly 7’s in Florida Grass color. A few bass have been caught on smaller crank baits in 2 to 4 foot of water as well.

Both Butler and Johns Lake the Crappie bite has been limited and very scattered, some being caught early morning in deep water, while majority have been caught around the grass beds, size of crappie has been down the last 2 weeks.
Private waters have been producing some very good numbers, along with some size, all bass have been caught on artificial baits with bass coming from docks and grass beds. Wacky rigged KO’s and Shad have been the way to catch them.

My reports have been slow coming the past 2 months but I should be back on schedule with them now, we have launched a new web site Thefishingtube.com which has taken up most of my free time. This web site is totally free so we want everyone to come join us, create yourself a member user name and set up your profile, you can upload pictures and videos. We currently have a teaser show filmed and uploaded with Pro Golfer JB Holmes and on our Skill Zone I am Hosting How to Videos. I would also like to welcome Deep South Fishing Rods to our family, as a sponsor on both our Fishing Show and my Guide Service. These rods are awesome, so please check them out.

Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing

February 2009 Report

The month of February has seen some very good bass fishing action here in Orlando. We have had most of our focus on Butler Chain and one of the private lakes that I fish. Butler Chain we have had some good bass come off beds, despite high winds that had consistently pounded us along with what seemed like an endless run on cold fronts.

Most of our trips this month were with artificial baits, with steel shad and a wide range of Gitem Baits catching most of the bass. Steel Shad have been doing a great job in deeper waters when fronts have hit us, working them mostly in 10 to 16 feet of water, almost slow rolling them, with the very tight wobble and close resemblance of bait fish, these baits have been awesome.

Gitem Baits have been plugging the bass for us in and around scattered grass beds, offshore hydrilla beds and docks. The Twin Liz and the Curly 7 have been doing great tossing them under docks texas rigged with a 1/16th ounce screw in weight. The Gitem Curly 10 has been great pulling it thru heavy eel grass to catch some nice quality bass, one day numbers will be up, and size down, but only to be followed up with some very solid bass being caught the next day.

We have found when the fronts have rolled thru, the bass were pushed away from the beds, but still in the area, so setting up 30 feet off the bedding areas had been the key to catching the quality bass, with some good schooling action towards the end of the month. Shiner fishing has been doing good, slow trolling the shiners with no float around deep drop offs on Lake Butler itself has produced some quality bass. Lakes Chase and Blanche have also held some good action, Chase has been good in areas where the lay downs are as well as Blanche. Blanche has been very good around the docks as well as just offshore from the docks, finding the offshore hydrilla has produced some very good quality bass.

The month of March has carried over pretty much from the same action we have seen in February, although the majority of the bass had already spawned, we still were catching some bass off beds, or cruising around the beds. Butler Chain we have been catching most bass just off the grass beds and under docks, wacky rigged Gitem KO’s have been doing great under docks as well as the curly 7’s.

Johns Lake has started showing some limited schooling action in the Dear Island cut, steel shad and High Roller Rip Rollers have got some good action. A few docks have produced on Johns Lake for us the past month, but one of the biggest patterns seems to have been isolated grass patches worked with either the KO’s or the curly 7’s in Florida Grass color. A few bass have been caught on smaller crank baits in 2 to 4 foot of water as well.

Both Butler and Johns Lake the Crappie bite has been limited and very scattered, some being caught early morning in deep water, while majority have been caught around the grass beds, size of crappie has been down the last 2 weeks.
Private waters have been producing some very good numbers, along with some size, all bass have been caught on artificial baits with bass coming from docks and grass beds. Wacky rigged KO’s and Shad have been the way to catch them.

My reports have been slow coming the past 2 months but I should be back on schedule with them now, we have launched a new web site Thefishingtube.com which has taken up most of my free time. This web site is totally free so we want everyone to come join us, create yourself a member user name and set up your profile, you can upload pictures and videos. We currently have a teaser show filmed and uploaded with Pro Golfer JB Holmes and on our Skill Zone I am Hosting How to Videos. I would also like to welcome Deep South Fishing Rods to our family, as a sponsor on both our Fishing Show and my Guide Service. These rods are awesome, so please check them out.
Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing

January 2009 bass fishing

January bass fishing has been off the hook!  The month started out with a big bang, as Ari came to fish, saying he never caught anything over I believe 5 pounds, well Butler Chain did not let him down. Ari caught two beauties, one coming in just over 7 pounds, and the other coming in just over 6 pounds! Both bass were caught on Butler using live bait, although the bite that day was rather slow, the size more than made up for everything this day.

Early part of the month I showed a tournament angler around the chain, giving up a few of my good spots, word back from him was as a co-angler, he ended up in second place, while his boater walked away with first place, all the bass coming from the areas I had taken him to, shameless little plug for myself there, but always a pleasure to hear back from guys on how they did in their tournaments, very happy things went great for these guys.

Johns Lake is still producing some good quality bass. Most of our catch has been coming from around docks and deeper water grass beds.Warlocks and Gitem Sugars have been the main producers for us, along with of course the trusty steel shad.We had a few runs out to Conway Chain of lakes and did very good using the Storm curl tail swim bait, steel shad and Carolina rigged gitem warlocks, all bass were coming from deeper waters, with most of our focus coming from fishing in the middle of the lake.

Private water we have been fishing is still producing not only some good bass, but also some very good crappie. Bass have been coming from mid lake areas using mostly steel shads and one ounce spinner baits, shallow waters have been producing with Gitem Warlocks, Gitem KO’s and the Gitem Curly 7’s.Paul Fisler and his nephew HM1 Shane R Gilley came for 3 days of some very entertaining fishing. Paul had been trying to get Shane to join us, and Shane finally got some time off to enjoy the great Florida waters and did an outstanding job catching some bass and crappie. I personally want to thank Shane, as well as all the service men and woman who proudly serve our  great nations armed forces, because if it was not for them, I would not be able to make a living the way I do, God Bless all of you.

Bassfishingfl.com

Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

December 2008

December has seen some great bass fishing action on Johns Lake, Butler Chain and the private waters we have been fishing.
Private waters have mainly been for crappie fishing the past month, and it has been producing some very nice slabs. Bait we have been using have been the SteelShad and jigs tipped with crappie nibbles.
Most trips have been 4 hour trips with us boating between 20 and 30 per trip and they have been running from 1 ½ pounds to 2 pound slabs!
Johns Lake we have spotted bass beds all over the place! Its that time of year for the big gals to show their faces and make clients very happy, as was the case with a father and son trip of Bruce and young Dave. Bruce had been tossing Gitem Warlocks and getting bass here and there, very scattered around the lake and towards the end of the trip, young Dave working a wild shiner got the wake up call of a lifetime! A beautiful and very solid 10.14 pound largemouth bass, let me tell you, this youngster handled this hawg of a bass like a pro! Our main areas of concentration on Johns Lake has been scattered and isolated grass patches, docks and a few areas of open water holding some good hydrilla.
Butler Chain has also had some good action going on, Bass beds have been spotted all over the chain. Altho the beds we have spotted have been for the most part empty right now, we have caught some very good bass in the general areas that the beds are. Areas we have concentrated on have been grass beds very close to drop offs, as the bass have been staging to hit the beds. Butler itself has been the main producer for numbers and size with several 6 pounders being caught on anything from steelshad, gitem warlocks and spinner baits.
Please remember to catch and release, and this time of year, be especially gentle with the big gals, afterall they are what make fishing in florida awesome!
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Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

November 2008

Things have been very crazy to say the least. We have had several trips to Johns Lake, Butler Chain, Conway Chain and a private lake.
Johns Lake has seen some good action, with early morning action coming from the Deer Island cut area working SteelShads and trick worms. Once the action slows in this area, we have been going into the marsh area working trick worms and brush hogs, all junebug colors, which have been producing some quality bass. Most of the action has been coming in open waters, with the baits being crawled slowly across bottom around grass beds and hydrilla. Main lake areas that have been producing for us have been the scattered isolated grass beds, once again, a single blade of grass produces a good catch. Jigs and whacky rigged senko type baits also have been producing around docks and submerged structure.
Butler Chain has also been pretty steady for us. Drop offs have been a major focus for us, tossing trick worms, craws and brush hogs into 16 plus foot of water, and slowly crawling the baits up into the shallower waters has been the ticket, most bass we have seen and caught have been suspended in 12 foot of water on the drop offs. Lake Butler and Little Lake Down have been the best producers for us, with Lake Tibet and Lake Louise also producing some good numbers.
Conway Chain faired pretty well, with once again deep waters being the big key to catching bass. Offshore weed beds were holding bass with rattle traps, steel shads and 7 inch worms catching the bulk of the bass. Several docks held some quality bass, with a whacky rig doing all the catching, as the bass would hit on the fall. Bite was light, so watching the line was big key to getting them out from under the docks.
The private lake we have been fishing on occasion has been producing very well. This body of water has seen some limited shallow water action, sitting in the middle of the lakes has been really producing some good numbers of not only bass but some 2 pound crappie. Steel shads have been the main bait for catching bass out there, and if worked like slow rolling a spinner bait, the crappie will slam this bait. Best crappie fishing action has been from 6:30am up to about 8am, then they just seem to shut down only getting a few here and there, very scattered, but you can usually get the limit by 8am. Best fishing waters have been in 12 to 18 foot of water, with bass mostly suspended in 8 to 10 foot of water, go deeper and you can catch some very big catch fish here also.
When we have gotten a good shallow water bite going, it has been mostly on brush hogs and trick worms crawled very slowly on the bottom. Water temperatures have been holding pretty steady in the low to mid 60's with schooling action going on most of the day as the bass are really starting to feed up good for the spawn. We have been seeing some scattered beds on Johns Lake, Butler Chain and the private waters so get ready for yet another great spawning season.
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Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

October 2008

The first half of October has already seen some very good bass fishing action with some good catches. Most of our time has been spent on Butler Chain this month along with some scouting of other local lakes. For the most part bass have been tighter to cover on Butler Chain. We have caught a lot of bass working grass beds and docks with some bass coming from submerged structure in deeper waters.
One bait that has once again become hot for us has been the Steel Shad. This bait has once again become a bass catching machine. This bait we have been working more around waters with deep drop offs and we have been catching the bass that are cruising back and forth from deep holes to shallow waters chasing bait fish. The Steel Shad has been a perfect match when it comes to the bait fish in size and color, with the silver one really catching some good numbers.
There has been scattered schooling action out on several lakes on Butler Chain, with Lake Tibet and Lake Sheen being the top producers for us, with Steel Shads and 1 ounce spinner baits catching quality and numbers from these schools.
Spent a few day out on a private body of water with Franky V and Eric, the guys fished half a day in the morning and we broke for lunch and returned to fish until 7pm. Open water areas had seen schooling action pretty much all day long with steel shad catching some good numbers. Franky was slow rolling a spinner bait over a brush pile and managed a few good keepers off of it. Shoreline and dock areas had seen some slower action, but a few good bass fell to the old trick worm. Water temperatures and air temperatures have finally come down to very comfortable levels, and this has triggered some very good bass fishing action and finally some good top water action. Average catches have been running between 20 and 30 bass a day now, with artificial baits doing most of the catching.
The last half of October has seen steadty fishing action. Schooling action has picked up greatly and given us a pretty good early morning top water action. Once the top water action has died off for the day, spinner baits and rattle traps have kept the action going during the day.
In my spare time after trips, I have started pouring my own soft plastics, and they have been producing not only good numbers, but some size as well, so look for my new store front on the web site, should be launched by January 1st.
Bassfishingfl.com